"At every turn, in every appearance, what she’s interested in is making her listeners feel shame. We live in an era that has become impervious to shame. An era defined by a president who views it as a weakness. Shame has become an antiquated emotion and a useless one. It’s advantageous, we’ve learned, to respond to charges of indecency with more indecency: attacks, misdirection, faux victimhood.

... Thunberg is saying: Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? And deep down, way deep down, in the place that stores unfamiliar emotions, many of her audience members are. This is the uplifting way to interpret the grotesque response to Thunberg.

... Anyone who listens to all of that and immediately wants to punish or attack Thunberg — they’re not having that reaction because they think she’s wrong, but rather because, deep down, they fear she is right."

— Hesse, M. (Sep 25, 2019). Greta Thunberg weaponized shame in an era of shamelessness. The Washington Post.